Published 3:54 am, Monday, July 11, 2016

"From that day on I was going to be a pilot," said Carlson, 93. "If I couldn't afford it I was going to join the Army or Navy and fly."

Fifteen years later, Carlson did just that. Upon completing his second year at Wentworth Institute of Technology, Carlson enlisted in the Navy simply because "it was what you did then."

"Everybody did it," Carlson said of enlisting.

Carlson was initially assigned to a Naval aviation cadet program at Amherst College where he learned navigation, aircraft recognition and how to fly F4F Wildcat fighter planes. During his initial training, Carlson roomed with two Boston sports icons.

"I was roommates with Ted Williams and Johnny Pesky," he said. "They were really good guys. We had 10 or 11 guys in a large dormitory room at the college."

A few weeks into his training, the cadets moved into fraternity houses on the college campus where Carlson and another man shared a room with Williams, the future Red Sox Hall of Famer. Williams shared some stories about his time with the Red Sox with Carlson, an avid baseball fan, and the other cadets.

"It was fun," he said.

In the coming months, Carlson traveled around the country, attending flight training in North Carolina, Indiana, Florida and California before he received orders to head to the Pacific Theatre.

"We bounced around," the Franklin native said. "That's all part of the routine of reassignment."

Assigned to an aircraft carrier, Carlson flew fighter missions during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, also known as the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea. Flying the one-man F4F Wildcat, Carlson fired bombs and bullets at the Japanese fleet, helping the Allied troops invade the islands.

"We basically prepared and supported the landings," he said. "We did a little bombing. We did what we had to do there."

Carlson faced little enemy fire in the skies over the Pacific, as the Battle of Leyte Gulf was the first time Japanese aircraft carried out organized kamikaze attacks. The Japanese conducted kamikaze attacks throughout the remainder of the war.

"The war had changed significantly," said Carlson. "There was not much air-to-air combat because they were all kamikazes."

Though Carlson did not have to worry about kamikazes while in the skies, the suicide bombers were constantly on his and other sailors' minds while aboard the USS Midway.

"It scared the hell out of you," he said. "They were crazy."

Carlson and his crew got an up-close view of a kamikaze one afternoon, as the aircraft headed right toward the carrier, but missed and crashed into the Pacific.

"He landed and blew up right in front of us," he said. "It was frightening."

His carrier had dodged kamikazes for eight months before returning to the states where the crew awaited reassignment. Carlson was transferred to Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod where his crew began training for a potential invasion of Japan.

The dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki not only put an end to Carlson's training for the invasion of the Japanese mainland, but also the war in the Pacific.

Discharged a few months later, Carlson got his flight instructor's license before attending Boston University. After graduating, Carlson got a job in the machine division of the Norton Company in Worcester.

Carlson said he admires the men in the European and Pacific theatres who were in harm's way each day.

"It was a different kind of war for me than a lot of people," he said. "I had no face-to-face combat. I have a great deal of empathy for the guys who got shot at every day."